Conventionally, there is known a wire winding apparatus for winding a wire around a core such as a bobbin, for example, by regular winding. The wire winding apparatus winds the wire so that turns of the wire formed around an outer circumference of the core are aligned with each other in an axial direction of the core. As the wire winding apparatus described above, there is known a wire winding apparatus for regular winding with pitch feeding. This wire winding apparatus winds the wire while shifting a feed mechanism for feeding the wire in the axial direction of the core by the amount equal to a diameter of the wire for each turn of the wire.
With the regular winding with pitch feeding, however, the wire is not always wound as initially planned. For example, in some cases, the diameter of the wire to be wound around the core is not constant but is varied. Moreover, even when the diameter of the wire is constant, there is a fear in that the diameter of the wire may be changed as a result of the extension of the wire that is caused by a tension applied during the wire winding. Therefore, even with the pitch feeding of the feeding mechanism based on a preset diameter of the wire, there is a fear in that the pitch feeding may not always suit for an actual diameter of the wire.
In order to avoid the problem described above, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-184640 proposes a wire winding apparatus using profile winding. The wire winding apparatus includes a pulley and a supporting member. The pulley is a wire feeding member for feeding the wire. The supporting member turnably supports a base end of an arm. The pulley is provided to a distal end of the arm. The pulley is configured to be operable through an intermediation of the arm, and hence the profile winding can be carried out. With the profile winding, the wire is guided by the last formed turn around the core so as to be subsequently wound around the core. By the profile winding, the wire is wound along a side surface of the last formed turn of the wire (along the wire) to achieve regular winding. In this manner, even when the diameter of the wire is undesirably changed, the wire is wound along the last formed turn of the wire.